Endorphin at Labor Pain and Acupressure

This study was performed to determine the impact of different acupressure procedures, performed on women's hands during labor, on endorphin levels and labor pain perception. The sample consisted of 140 pregnant women. The study was conducted with three experimental groups and one control group, each including 35 pregnant women. Conventional acupressure and warm and cold acupressure procedures were performed on the Large Intestinal 4 energy meridian zone acupressure point of the experimental group. No procedures were performed on the women in the control group. Data were collected using a "Personal Information Form", "Labor Intervention Follow-up Form", "Visual Analog Scale" and "Verbal Category Scale". The comparison between the experimental and control groups indicated that the conventional acupressure procedure was effective in reducing labor pain and that the warm acupressure procedure increased endorphin levels.